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The difference between a freshly baked waffle cone and one that’s been sitting around a few weeks? It’s like the difference between cardboard and a fresh pastry that has sweetness of a cookie and the delicacy of French palmiers.

At Bluebird Homemade Ice Cream in Cross River, waffle cones are never more than 24 hours old, and they are filled with cold, sweet, creamy, homemade ice cream in flavors of all sorts.

Barbara Kessler owns the shop, and if you stop by between 2:30 and 3:30 p.m. any weekday, you’ll find her enjoying a scoop of her favorite flavor, Stumptown Coffee, while finishing work for her day job as a Spanish teacher at John Jay High School.

She prides herself on the quality of her natural ingredients. “People are used to eating food that is full of other things,” she says. “Back to basics tastes different all of a sudden.”

The most popular flavor? Salted caramel. She says, “People go crazy for it.” The menu is written on a giant chalkboard, which is fitting for a teacher, and lists more than 15 flavors, including chocolate pudding, almond macaroon, vegan-friendly coconut and her favorite, Stumptown Coffee brownie royale — a flavor that came to her “in a dream” and experienced an incredibly popular first batch. Each container is also assigned its own scoop, so there’s no cross-contamination concern for customers with food allergies.

Bluebird is coming up on its one year anniversary in July and showing no signs of losing momentum. Seasonal flavors are constantly rotating, and in addition to the waffle cones, decadent brownies and hot fudge sauce are all homemade.

So what makes an empty-nester want to add a second career? The success of her son, Josh, who lives in Seattle, where he operates the original Bluebird Ice Cream.

When Kessler tasted her son’s ice cream for the first time two years ago, she immediately thought, “I can never buy ice cream again.” She tried to convince him to ship some to her, packed in dry ice, with no success.

“He told me, ‘Mom, I love you, but I’m not sending you ice cream 3,000 miles,’” says Kessler. So she decided to take matters into her own hands. With recipes and instructions from her son, she opened a New York branch within walking distance of the school where she teaches.

In the late afternoon, Bluebird is swarming with kids, many of whom are her students. And yes, they all love those waffle cones.

“People come in as I’m making the cones and want them right away even though they’ll melt the ice cream!” says Kessler.

Still, this summer, she’s looking forward to the summer school break, when she can spend more time eating, scooping and adding a few new flavors to the chalkboard.